(no subject)
You may remember my post from back in September when my husband and I adopted a nine month old handful of a pit bull. She barked obsessively at our cats and bit them if they got close enough, she bit us when we tried to put her leash on, she bit us if we told her to get off the couch, she ate everything she could get her paws on...she was a handful, to put it nicely. We took her to a beginner training class, where she excelled, and we are leaps and bounds from where we started. She is not my first dog, but she is the first dog who required this much effort, and I don't think I've ever done something so rewarding.
Our biggest issue now is her play behavior, and I honestly have no clue how to handle this. She tries to play with the cats, but she plays with them as if they are other dogs her size. She pounces on them and bites them, and they are much too small to take that kind of play. We never leave them alone together and we make sure it never gets out of hand. She will stop with a "leave it" most of the time, but I don't know how to make her not do it in the first place, or at least be gentler.
She is the same way when she plays with people. If you try to with her, she will chomp down on your arm or leg like it's a big tasty dog bone. Sometimes if you're walking by her and she decides she wants to play, she will bite your feet. And I'm not talking about little nips; these are full on bites. We always stop, turn our backs, and ignore her until she calms down. If there is something nearby to redirect her to when she is actively biting, we do that before turnings our backs but don't give her any other attention besides giving her the toy. But this never doesn't happen, and this is one area where she hasn't improved at all. We've also tried yelping and that just makes her wag faster and bite harder. -_-
She also behaves this way with other dogs. On Thanksgiving, my cousins brought their (young) GSD mixes and we brought Luna. My cousins both said their dogs are usually pretty dominant in play situations and aren't fazed by dogs who play harder than they do. They are also much bigger than Luna, so we figured they wouldn't let her walk all over them. We were wrong. It wasn't very long before they didn't want to play with her anymore. Of course we monitored everything closely, and when it was obvious the other dogs were done, we took Luna home. She had a playdate once with our neighbor's pit bull when we first got her. He has a similar play style, so she didn't learn anything from him except to keep doing what she's doing. The only other dogs she's had a chance to play with since we've had her are my mom's labs who are 11 and 9 and she is way too much for them. They will play with her a little bit, but when she gets to be too much, they growl at her and she actually does back off. That's the only thing I've seen that will make her back off.
She was tested with a number of dogs at the shelter and never showed any aggression. We've never seen her show any aggression to other dogs, cats, or people. She just plays really hard and really rough. She also only acts this way around people she knows. If a stranger comes over, she's sweet as pie and acts like cuddling is the only thing she likes to do.
Ideas?
Here's the little monster smiling pretty for the camera xD
...and chomping on Daddy's arm because he was napping when she wanted to play.
Our biggest issue now is her play behavior, and I honestly have no clue how to handle this. She tries to play with the cats, but she plays with them as if they are other dogs her size. She pounces on them and bites them, and they are much too small to take that kind of play. We never leave them alone together and we make sure it never gets out of hand. She will stop with a "leave it" most of the time, but I don't know how to make her not do it in the first place, or at least be gentler.
She is the same way when she plays with people. If you try to with her, she will chomp down on your arm or leg like it's a big tasty dog bone. Sometimes if you're walking by her and she decides she wants to play, she will bite your feet. And I'm not talking about little nips; these are full on bites. We always stop, turn our backs, and ignore her until she calms down. If there is something nearby to redirect her to when she is actively biting, we do that before turnings our backs but don't give her any other attention besides giving her the toy. But this never doesn't happen, and this is one area where she hasn't improved at all. We've also tried yelping and that just makes her wag faster and bite harder. -_-
She also behaves this way with other dogs. On Thanksgiving, my cousins brought their (young) GSD mixes and we brought Luna. My cousins both said their dogs are usually pretty dominant in play situations and aren't fazed by dogs who play harder than they do. They are also much bigger than Luna, so we figured they wouldn't let her walk all over them. We were wrong. It wasn't very long before they didn't want to play with her anymore. Of course we monitored everything closely, and when it was obvious the other dogs were done, we took Luna home. She had a playdate once with our neighbor's pit bull when we first got her. He has a similar play style, so she didn't learn anything from him except to keep doing what she's doing. The only other dogs she's had a chance to play with since we've had her are my mom's labs who are 11 and 9 and she is way too much for them. They will play with her a little bit, but when she gets to be too much, they growl at her and she actually does back off. That's the only thing I've seen that will make her back off.
She was tested with a number of dogs at the shelter and never showed any aggression. We've never seen her show any aggression to other dogs, cats, or people. She just plays really hard and really rough. She also only acts this way around people she knows. If a stranger comes over, she's sweet as pie and acts like cuddling is the only thing she likes to do.
Ideas?
Here's the little monster smiling pretty for the camera xD
...and chomping on Daddy's arm because he was napping when she wanted to play.